Artists often look for ways to digitize their artwork to store in a safe place or share on their social media in high-resolution images.
Therefore, many might ask if they can scan a drawing into a computer by themselves? and the answer is yes.
There are many different methods that people use to scan their drawings. Still, this post will focus on one of the most common and most straightforward ways: using your computer’s scanner.
Read on to know how to scan a drawing with your computer’s scanner!
Contents
How do I Scan a Drawing on my Laptop?
To scan a drawing, you will need the following items:
- A scanner – A flatbed scanner is best for this type of scan as it allows you to scan larger items. Many scanners even come with a cover that helps protect your scanning from dust and other particles in the air.
- You can scan your drawing with an inexpensive scanner such as the CanoScan LiDE120 or a similar product.
- Your computer/laptop
- Your drawings
- Photo editing software
Once you have all of these items gathered together, follow these steps to scan your drawing:
Step One: Open up your scanning software.
For this tutorial, we will be using Microsoft Windows Photo Gallery. If you do not have this software installed on your computer, any other scanning software should also work.
Step Two: Place your Drawing on the Scanner Bed.
Please make sure that it is facing the right way.
You may want to scan each individual page of a multi-page drawing separately if there is more than one page.
Note: scan at high resolution in color mode if possible. If it’s not possible to scan in color, scan in black and white mode.
Step Three: Click on the “Scan” button in your scanning software.
Step Four: Edit the scanned photo
Once the scan has finished, open up your photo editing software and adjust any necessary settings for you to see your drawing.
At this point, you can also save the scan to your computer if you would like. You can do this by clicking on the Save As button and selecting a location on your computer where you would like to save it.
Suppose there are any problems with the scan (such as poor image quality). In that case, you can usually fix them by using the photo editing software included with your computer.
Step Five: Upload and adjust
Repeat these steps for each drawing that needs to be scanned before uploading them all to the website. Once uploaded, make sure that they are titled correctly and follow any other instructions given by our submission guidelines.
Can I Scan a Drawing on my Phone?
Yes! You can scan a drawing on your phone. Just search for “scanner app” in your app store. Some scanner apps even let you export your scan as a PDF file so you can save it or send it to someone else.
How to scan a drawing on your phone:
- Open the camera app and tap the scan button
- Hold the phone steady and line up the edges of the drawing with the blue lines in the scan window
- Once it’s scanned, you can edit or share it just like any other photo
Can you Scan Pencil Drawings?
Yes, but there are a few things you need to know to get the best scan possible.
- First, make sure that your drawing is as clean and smooth as possible. Pencil drawings can be tricky to scan because of the texture of the pencil lead. If there are any bumps or lines on the
- drawing, they will show up in the scan, and it will be difficult to correct them later
- Second, use a good-quality scanner. A low-quality scanner will not capture all of the detail in your drawing, which can result in a blurry or pixelated image
- Finally, adjust your scanner settings so that you get the best results. Try scanning at different resolutions and file types until you find one that produces the best scan
Concludes
Understanding how to scan a drawing is not only crucial for the preservation of art but can also be used in forensic examinations. While it’s a little harder to scan drawings, the process isn’t very complicated if you have the right equipment.
We hope this blog post has given you some insight into what’s involved in scanning drawings and other artifacts.